Family And Medical Leave Act Forms Revised

By Amy E. Feldman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Department of Labor just revised forms that employers need to use if an employee needs Family and Medical Leave Act Leave.

In 2012, the cousin of an Ohio worker told the worker's boss that she wouldn't be in work because she'd suffered a nervous breakdown.  The supervisor sent flowers and a get well card.  After the woman failed to return to work on the date she said she would, she was fired.  She sued under the Family and Medical Leave saying that she should have been given FMLA leave.  But the company argued that she'd never asked for it.

The court sided with the worker, because it found that based on the fact that the employer had sent flowers and a card it knew she had a medical condition and should have engaged in a discussion with her over her rights to take FMLA leave. Your florist wants me to remind you that the lesson here isn't don't send flowers, but rather that a company has to have a dialogue about FMLA rights with workers it suspects might be entitled to it.  The Department of Labor just revised the forms an employer should be sending to an employee whom it believes may be entitled to such leave which you can find at DOL.gov.